Orlando man arrested in $500K money-laundering scheme

An Orlando man was arrested last week and accused of stealing more than $500,000 from major credit-card companies in a fraud scheme.

According to investigators from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, 31-year-old Daryl Ali used information from existing businesses to create merchant accounts — bank accounts that allow businesses to accept payments from customers using debit and credit cards — for phony businesses.

After the accounts were created, Ali used them to process fake credit-card returns.

When the credit-card companies processed the returns and deposited money into the accounts, Ali withdrew the cash or moved the money to other accounts, agents said.

Ali kept the scheme going for more than seven months before his arrest last week. The investigation was launched after a complaint from American Express.

When FDLE raided Ali's home on Loyola Circle in Orlando on Wednesday, they found several credit cards in various names and about $12,000 in cash. He was booked into the Orange County Jail on $100,000 bail on money-laundering charges. He remained in jail Saturday.